UPWARD GROWTH OF THE HEAD, AND [Part II. 
'pressed farthest from the centre of the earth. 
But this tendency is constantly interfered with. 
If stones are put in a vessel half full of water, 
they, the heavier, are drawn by gravity,' or 
weight, to the bottom, and they press the liquid 
water, the lighter, to the top of the vessel: and 
(though it is a false expression) the water may 
be said to ascend by gravity, as flame, or sparks, 
or smoke,—that is, heated air,— the lighter, may 
be said to ascend by gravity through the atmo¬ 
spheric air, the heavier. 
But if stones are placed on the surface of the 
solid earth, though they are the heavier, gravity, 
or weight, has not the power to draw them 
through it. How, then, is gravity, or weight, 
which has not the power to draw a stone, the 
heavier solid, through the earth, the lighter 
solid,—how is it to have the power to draw a 
root, the lighter solid, through the earth, the 
heavier solid ? 
There would, indeed, be nothing wonderful in 
the root, the heavier, descending by gravity, or 
weight, through the fluid air, the lighter. But 
that the root, the lighter, should descend by 
gravity, or weight, through the earth, the hea¬ 
vier, is as inexplicable and as contradictory as 
that the stem, the heavier, should ascend by 
gravity, or weight, through the air, the lighter. 
